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Selector-World XI (1980 onwards) (ENG-captain) Passed Mike Atherton's 7728 Test runs | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Norfolk My main national team: None - I support cricket in general
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quagmire  But he took it to a new level a Wicketkeeper that could make it alone as a batsman. | Except that Les Ames did exactly the same thing back in the 1930s: Quote:
Leslie Ethelbert George Ames, CBE, who died suddenly at his home in Canterbury on February 26, 1990, aged 84, was without a doubt the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman the game has so far produced; and yet, at the time he was playing, it used to be said there were better wicketkeepers than Ames, and that he was in the England team because of his batting. If this was so, would Jardine, for example, have preferred him to Duckworth in Australia in 1932-33? Surely not. When fully fit, Ames was England's first-choice wicketkeeper from 1931 to 1939, when he virtually gave up the job. For Kent, he was an integral part of their Championship side from 1927 to the first match of 1951, when a sharp recurrence of back trouble, which had dogged him for so long, brought his career to an end while he was actually at the crease. By this time he had amassed 37,248 runs, average 43.51, made 102 hundreds, including nine double-hundreds, and passed 1,000 runs in a season seventeen times, going on to 3,000 once and 2,000 on five occasions. He had had a direct interest in 1,121 dismissals, of which more than 1,000 were effected when he was keeping wicket. His total of 418 stumpings is easily a record.
Ames was a correct player with a fluent classical style; a magnificent driver, especially when moving out to the pitch. When set, he employed the lofted drive over the inner ring of fielders with rare judgement and skill, and he could turn good-length balls into half-volleys on lightning feet. Woe betide any bowler who started dropping short: he would be hammered to the cover boundary, or despatched to leg with powerful hooks or pulls. A superb entertainer, he was popular with spectators up and down the land, but praise or flattery would leave him unmoved: he could never understand what all the fuss was about. Behind the stumps he maintained a consistently high standard. Among his more notable efforts when playing for England were eight dismissals against West Indies at The Oval in 1933, and against South Africa in 1938-39 he conceded only one bye for every 275 balls delivered in the series. On the Bodyline tour he took the thunderbolts of Larwood and Voce with quiet efficiency. His style was unobtrusive; there were no flamboyant gestures. He saw the ball so early that he was invariably in the right position without having to throw himself about. His glovework was neat and economical, his stumpings almost apologetic.
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28-01-2008, 10:44 PM
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